Freeware Tools: HDHacker 1.4

HDHacker is a portable tool micro-utility that saves, visualizes, and restores the MBR (from a physical drive), the BootSector (from a logical drive) or any specified sector from any disk (even removable disks). HDHacker is an advanced hard drive tool for system administrators. An MBR and BootSector backup can also be useful for simple precautionary purposes too, since sometimes viruses or other OS setup (like Linux) could overwrite and/or alter the MBR/Boot Sectors making it impossible to start up previous OS and/or access datas stored on the disk.

This is the portable edition of HDHacker - a lightweight program that lets you view, save and restore the Master Boot Record (MBR) from a physical drive, the Boot Sector from a logical drive, or any other sector from the disk. It primarily addresses users with some minimal background in this type of apps.

Since installation is not a prerequisite, you can just extract the program files to any location on the hard drive and run the executable file directly.

Otherwise, you can store HDHacker on a USB flash drive or similar storage unit, and run it on any computer. This way, you can carry the tool in your pocket whenever you're on the move.

More importantly, the Windows Registry section does not receive new entries, and no files are left behind on the hard drive after program removal.

The interface of the tool is represented by a standard window with a well-defined layout, where you can select a logical or physical drive to operate, together with the first or custom sector. In addition, you can save a sector to file (DAT format), copy its details to the Clipboard, or write it on the disk.

The straightforward software program uses a very low quantity of CPU and system memory, so it does not interfere with the runtime of other active processes.

It has a good response time and immediately displays sector information, without causing the operating system to hang, crash or pop up error dialogs.